The advantages of external recruitment

External recruitment is the process of searching outside of the current employee pool to fill open positions in an organisation.

As with any recruiting method, hiring from the labour pool instead of promoting from within the company carries both advantages and disadvantages. External recruitment can cost more than hiring from within, but it also provides an opportunity for a fresh outlook on the industry that a company may need to stay competitive. Considering these aspects of external recruitment will help you decide if your needs are best met with an internal or external candidate.

Training is often the most expensive aspect of hiring a new employee. External recruitment provides the opportunity to seek out candidates with the required skills and experience to handle the duties of the position. While you still need to train the newly hired employee on company-specific policies and procedures, hiring a candidate with proven skills and experience can dramatically reduce the amount of time spent training on day-to-day tasks associated with the position.

Many companies struggle with developing a diverse team of employees. External recruiting opens up many opportunities to find experienced and highly qualified candidates that will help a company meet their diversity requirements.

While some experts argue that external hiring harms the moral of the current team, external recruitment has benefits in regard to company moral.

Internal employees that receive the opportunity to interview for a promotion are likely to become discouraged if not granted the position, especially when internal competition is high. Bringing in fresh talent from outside of the company roster can help motivate the current employees to achieve more in hopes of obtaining the next promotional opportunity.

Using direct recruiting methods allows a company to target the key industry players that make the competition successful. Hiring a candidate with a proven track record for the competition allows for an insider's view of what the competition is doing to succeed. This gives the company an advantage that will help keep the organisation a step ahead of the competition.

Most companies strive to think outside of the box.

Employees hired through external recruitment are more likely to question the ways that a company handles business. This provides a tremendous opportunity for upper management to rethink how and why business activities are done, which often helps a company have a forward-thinking approach that stimulates growth and advancement.